Roman Sculptor

Deified Emperor

XVII century. Marble, 218 x 105 cm.

This sculpture consists of a seventeenth-century head of Augustus and a torso of Augustus or Tiberius dating from the beginning of the first century A.D. This type of iconography, with a body based on the art of Polycletus (fifth century B.C.) and clothed in the traditional Roman toga, was used to represent emperors deified after death. These statues were made for the temples of imperial worship.